After distributor Promo Dealer made the transition to commonsku with their full team of fifteen employees, we called Jake Malishkevich, Executive Director, to ask about the transition. Jake’s first reflection was about himself, “When you notice that a particular ERP is designed to make your life easier, as a leader it is your job to transition your team so that you can make everyone’s lives better.”
Jake then shared his story about their transition:
“After we had done our research, I met with Catherine, and we went over the benefits of commonsku. She recommended that one or two people give it a try to see how it goes, we could then make a full transition later with the whole team.”
“I felt so strongly about what it was going to do for our business that I came back and gave everybody three business days to learn commonsku. It was going to be company wide; there was not to be any questions, comments, or concerns until after the transition was made. We were not going to have a 25-person meeting as to whether commonsku was right for us, or whether the system was going to do everything we want, the system is there to grow our business. That is the only argument I need to make a company wide transformation.”
“There’s not much of an argument as to why a distributor, large or small, would not at least try commonsku for their team.”
JAKE MALISHKEVICH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
“Besides, I felt it would be impossible to test the limits of commonsku without transitioning overnight, and so we did. It really threw everybody into the fire. When you have to adapt or die -which is the business we live in anyways- you adapt. It was awesome. Some of the folks who voiced the most concern after our transition are now the strongest users in commonsku and it has become an integral part of our day-to-day.”
Jakes final word of advice is to those who remain concerned about change, “There’s always going to be challenges along the way, no growth comes without challenges. But it would be insanity for a leader of an organization to ignore a piece of software designed specifically for their business, specifically for their clients, and specifically for their vendors. There’s not much of an argument as to why a distributor, large or small, would not at least try commonsku for their team.”
